Happy Birthday Mommy!

Dear Mother,

I am so thankful to God for giving you to be my mother.

Thank you for choosing life, having a forth child, me, a 5^th Victor, 6^th Melody and a 7^th Jodavid. You went where few mothers dared to go and threw away your birth control when it was not popular to anyone you knew.

Thank you for not giving up on any of us and sending us public school when we were little rebellious kids.

You and Dad were brave in our generation. You built a house that would fit all the children God would give you and you did not know how many that would be, so you made it big. It took seven years and we all have good memories of helping.

Thank you for staying out of debt.

Thank you for not spoiling us with lots of toys.

I am so thankful to you and Daddy for driving 1 hour to Church each Sunday, because the youth at those churches gave us good peer pressure to be godly.

Thank you for being a mother who told us things and made us part of your life and prepared us for what we will face when we leave the nest.

Thank you for being a remarkable wife to Dad and following him where God leads him and helping him see things as a good balancer of a husband should.

I pray God will give me a husband that will bless you and not bring you grief all the days of your life.

I love you Mom. You are my heroine.

Happy 55^th Birthday! May God give you 50 more!

Your daughter,

Dinah Leigh Seppi

Oct. 14, 1914-Nov. 10, 2005 Grandpa, Darwin Norval Stoops

Passed away in Visalia California, November 10, 2005 at the age of 91.

Norval was born October 14, 1914 in Viola, Wisconsin to Clifford and Mattie Stoops, the third of five children. He was raised on the family farm until his father was killed at age 43 by a logging injury when he was 10. He then worked on a small dairy to help support the family. Norval lost a brother, Marion, who drown at age 18 and a sister Pauline at age 19 from tuberculosis. Their oldest brother, Wesley, and mother both passed away at age 83.

Norval graduated from Northwest Nazarene Collage with a B.S. in sociology.

He taught Ancient History and Physical Education at Holiness Evangelistic Institute in El Monte, California where he met a student, Mary Bailey.

They married, on February 21^st 1942, a union that has lasted 63 years, nine months.

Norval and Mary were blessed with seven children:

Fama, David, and Mary, Stephen, Daniel, Esther and Samuel.

Fama was born in San Diego during WWII, where Norval worked at Consolidated Aircraft. David was born in Linda Vista California. Mary was born in Visalia where Norval served as principal of Linwood School. Stephen was born in Illinois where he taught children of the Olivet Nazarene College Professors and sold Electrolux vacuum cleaners. Daniel arrived after the family moved to Corona, California. Two weeks after Dan’s birth, Norval moved the family back to Visalia. While living here, God gave them Esther and Samuel. In 1958, he had an illness that left his legs paralyzed. The church people prayed around the clock and God healed him. Norval was a surveyor for the National Park Service, working on roads in Grant Grove and Kings Canyon. Next, Norval was a school bus driver and custodian for Stone Corral. He retired after ten years with Tulare County Engineers in 1975.

Norval is survived by his younger brother, George, of Nampa, Idaho, his wife, Mary, and seven children, 29 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren.

He was an avid member of Visalia Nazarene Church, where he was involved in teaching Sunday School, a bus ministry and visiting Juvenile Hall.

Norval is remembered for his love for God, family and country, the mountains, wearing overalls, woodworking, vacuuming, rototilling, helping strangers, playing math games, dominoes, string tricks, horseshoes, rising early, quoting poems, memorizing scripture and faithful family devotions.
Darwin N Stoops (1914 - 2005) 

Creation Calls ~ Brian Doerksen

I have felt the wind blow,
Whispering your name…
I have seen your tears fall,
When I watch the rain.

(Refrain)
How could I say there is no God?
When all around creation calls!!
A singing bird, a mighty tree,
The vast expanse of open sea…

(Musical interlude)

Gazing at a bird in flight,
Soaring through the air.
Lying down beneath the stars,
I feel your presence there.

I love to stand at ocean shore
And feel the thundering breakers roar,
To walk through golden fields of grain
With endless bloom horizons fray.

Listening to a river run,
Watering the Earth.
Fragrance of a rose in bloom,
A newborn's cry at birth.

(Refrain)

I love to stand at ocean shore
And feel the thundering breakers roar,
To walk through golden fields of grain
With endless bloom horizons fray

I believe

The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting,

But diligence is man’s precious possession.
~Proverbs 12:27

You make sure your children

never marry the wicked,

because if they do

your descendants could work

to destroy Christendom.

Brandon & Matt

Dinner

Sweet Hospitality

Above is Brandon’s Art

Old Paths Christian History Conference

This was the Battle Cry of the American War of Independence

http://www.abolishcompulsoryeducation.com/

Dinner with conference friends:

Vladimir told us about his grandfather,

the first Christian in his village,

who was tortured by the Communists.

Familiar View
Photo by Micah

Photo by Micah

Friends

Photo by Micah

Always Ready
Photo by Micah

Drama

Photo by Micah

Vladimir grew up in public schools in the USSR,

where they were taught to recite

"Linen was alive,

Linen is alive,

Linen will be alive."

Deer near the Cemetery

Eric Hovind is great fun,

teaching creation

or rubber band shooting.

He is so much like his dad!

With Magic (Our favorite arms trainer) and Sheriff Mack

Richard Mack recently won a Supreme Court case,

stating that the County Sheriff

has the authority over his jurisdiction

and is not obligated to obey or enforce

Federal directives.

Ed said, "I want this picture framed."

Produce at Cairn's Corner,

a 100 year old family business.

Shopper

Ben, Lance, Brian

Ben & Brian with us

Melody

Extracting Honey

De-capping

Honey Bees

Stung!

Unfiltered honey straight from the extractor

Un-capping

Filling a Barrel

Bush is a universalist?

A Future Family blog

Steven and Rebecca have started their blog, complete with a wedding countdown,

which is at this moment is: 26 days, 23 hours and 0 minutes!

We praise God for His work in this special couple.

http://srloomis.com/blog/

“He hath made every thing beautiful in His time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)”.

Bringing Up Teenage Boys

Straight Talk to Moms and Dads

by Geoffrey Botkin

According to acclaimed American schoolteacher John Taylor Gatto, school harms boys far more than it helps them because it takes from boys the tools they need for critical thinking in the real world.

Says Gatto in his book Dumbing Us Down (1992; reprinted, New Society Publishers, 2005):

Around the year 1850 all the free-form, casual schooling that made our nation of farmers far and away the best-educated the world had ever seen was done away with in a series of strokes of the legislative pen.

In the 1860s, Herbert Spencer . . . pronounced government schooling a preposterous endeavor doomed to failure. He said that this would happen because it deprived children of raw experience and responsibility precisely at the moment their natural development demanded it, and that this experience and responsibility could not be made up for later.

“I feel ashamed,” states Gatto, “that so many of us cannot imagine a better way to do things than locking children up all day in cells instead of letting them grow up knowing their families, mingling with the world, assuming real obligations, striving to be independent and self-reliant and free.”

My purpose here is to help us imagine and pursue a better way.

Read the rest here:

http://www.homeschooltoday.com/news/175/23/Bringing-Up-Teenage-Boys.htm

Photo: Homeschooling Today Magazine

Subject: A Brief History of Government Immunizations

Ron Paul tells a great story of the Swine Flu Scare in the 1970’s. He and Larry McDonald, the only two MDs in congress voted against the regulation, because they did not believe government should be involved in telling people what they should do for their health care. It turned out they were right medically as well, Ron said that more people died from the vaccination than from the flu.

While vaccinations have helped in many circumstances, as all fans of Louis Pasteur have heard, they should be left to family and individual discretion, not to a Nanny State.

A Brief History of Government Immunizations

WRITTEN BY ALEX NEWMAN

TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2009 14:45

As the start of the federal government’s most ambitious vaccination program approaches, it is worth taking a second look at the history of similar campaigns in the past. Since most of the media and government health officials constantly laud vaccine successes, this article will dwell more on the stories that are not as widely disseminated.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/history/world/1875-a-brief-history-of-government-immunizations

Retreat Presentation

The Idiosyncrasies of Nox-4 Proteins in Rats

Half of the Audience

Dyes and Pumps

Almond Harvest

Campasina

Jackrabbit

Jackrunner

Man at Work

Gathering Almonds

Picking up the Missed Almonds

One Trailer Filled, One Not Needed

Discipleship

Monopoly

Practice

Morning Walk

Prayer for Safety

Keep on the Firing Line

Sisters

This one doesn't kick

See "The Last Defense:"

http://colonymovie.com/stings.html

Keep on the firing line.

Melody is ready.

Victor

Gina

Grego

David

Reload

Our Drill Master

Gina

Dinahmight

Our Annie Oakley

Reload

Weaver Stance

Daddy

Lance

"This is a funny one. My hair got stuck in the branches."

~Melody

Morning Walk

Fiona the Grand-kitten

Concrete Plans